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UNH 2024/2025 Goldberg Edition

acs64 said:
Think he had an important game where 7 were scored against him :). To be exact he should be touchdown plus an extra point Mikey.
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I can still see the goal he gave up to Metcalf. Somebody would later say "that shot couldn't break glass." And they were right. Still ended up in the back of the net.

But he was an absolute workhorse the following year. Played 41 of 42 games. UNH was trying to give away the national semifinal against Cornell and he stopped a shot with his face.
 
Felger said:
I can still see the goal he gave up to Metcalf. Somebody would later say "that shot couldn't break glass." And they were right. Still ended up in the back of the net.

But he was an absolute workhorse the following year. Played 41 of 42 games. UNH was trying to give away the national semifinal against Cornell and he stopped a shot with his face.
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He was a good goalie. The thing that impressed me was at Alfond his defensemen backed in on him when he was trying to cover the puck. It sliced his wrist area and he leaked a lot of blood. They ambulanced him to the emergency room where he needed a lot of stitches. He had a tendon severed. Nobody would have expected him to play the next day. But he did and he had a hell of a game. Sometimes he would make a glove save and visibly be wincing in pain. And then our top sniper Colin Shields had a hell of a hard slap shot that he saved and you could tell he was having a hard time recovering from that. He earned a tie and a lot of respect from not only his own team but the Maine fans too. https://www.uscho.com/recaps/2002/02/02/ayers-is-ironman-in-maine-unh-draw/
 
Sparkee said:
He was a good goalie. The thing that impressed me was at Alfond his defensemen backed in on him when he was trying to cover the puck. It sliced his wrist area and he leaked a lot of blood. They ambulanced him to the emergency room where he needed a lot of stitches. He had a tendon severed. Nobody would have expected him to play the next day. But he did and he had a hell of a game. Sometimes he would make a glove save and visibly be wincing in pain. And then our top sniper Colin Shields had a hell of a hard slap shot that he saved and you could tell he was having a hard time recovering from that. He earned a tie and a lot of respect from not only his own team but the Maine fans too. https://www.uscho.com/recaps/2002/02/02/ayers-is-ironman-in-maine-unh-draw/
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Remember that well. Couldn't believe how much blood was on the ice. The following night he was clearly in pain. Sometimes if he played the puck he could only keep one hand on his stick. I know the Colin Shields shot you're talking about. Believe it or not, I had the opportunity to ask Ayers about it a few years later. He remembered it.o_O
 
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acs64 said:
Think he had an important game where 7 were scored against him :). To be exact he should be touchdown plus an extra point Mikey.
Click to expand...
Back in those days, the extra points were pretty automatic, and I suppose none of us were in the mood to quibble over it TBF. :confused:

The two-plus weeks between UNH's watershed 2002 HEA title win over UMaine, and UMaine's revenge in the FF Semis in St. Paul may have been the happiest two-plus weeks of my entire UNH fandom. Walshy (RIP) had passed a few years earlier, leaving Timmy in charge, and the win in the Fleet Center (IIRC?) felt like the passing of the torch. Well, when the 7-2 payback arrived, I suppose the visual would have been Umile stumbling and dropping the torch, a la Biden, on the steps of Air Force One. Both Umile and Timmy would have their FF Finals chances the next two seasons, but neither was quite up to it.

... but for those two brief shiny weeks in between Boston and St. Paul, things really seemed to be looking up ... until they weren't ...
 
Chuck Murray said:
Back in those days, the extra points were pretty automatic, and I suppose none of us were in the mood to quibble over it TBF. :confused:

The two-plus weeks between UNH's watershed 2002 HEA title win over UMaine, and UMaine's revenge in the FF Semis in St. Paul may have been the happiest two-plus weeks of my entire UNH fandom. Walshy (RIP) had passed a few years earlier, leaving Timmy in charge, and the win in the Fleet Center (IIRC?) felt like the passing of the torch. Well, when the 7-2 payback arrived, I suppose the visual would have been Umile stumbling and dropping the torch, a la Biden, on the steps of Air Force One. Both Umile and Timmy would have their FF Finals chances the next two seasons, but neither was quite up to it.

... but for those two brief shiny weeks in between Boston and St. Paul, things really seemed to be looking up ... until they weren't ...
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484946779_739559021729294_9144692711464672824_n.jpg
 
Sparkee said:
He was a good goalie. The thing that impressed me was at Alfond his defensemen backed in on him when he was trying to cover the puck. It sliced his wrist area and he leaked a lot of blood. They ambulanced him to the emergency room where he needed a lot of stitches. He had a tendon severed. Nobody would have expected him to play the next day. But he did and he had a hell of a game. Sometimes he would make a glove save and visibly be wincing in pain. And then our top sniper Colin Shields had a hell of a hard slap shot that he saved and you could tell he was having a hard time recovering from that. He earned a tie and a lot of respect from not only his own team but the Maine fans too. https://www.uscho.com/recaps/2002/02/02/ayers-is-ironman-in-maine-unh-draw/
Click to expand...
We were there for that one, we had seats down at the opposite end, didn't know what happened until they spent over 5 minutes trying to clean up the mess in front of the other goal. IIRC the back-up goalie was a club-level kid named Collins (?), as I believe the regular backup/rotating goalie Matt Carney was down with an injury of his own, so we all figured the clubbie would get the Sunday afternoon game (first game was a Friday night), but when word got back to Effingwoods that Ayers was gonna give it a go, we were all pretty shocked. And he earned a tie.
 
IIRC it was the BC fans on the board that got on Ayers' case more than the Maine fans. (You can't spell playoff chokers without Ayers)

Which makes BC's underachieving with him on the staff so ironic.
 
I see 3 of North Dakota's better players are in the portal more than likely due to the coaching change including Sacha Boisvert the 18th player picked in the Draft last year.
 
Chuck Murray said:
We were there for that one, we had seats down at the opposite end, didn't know what happened until they spent over 5 minutes trying to clean up the mess in front of the other goal. IIRC the back-up goalie was a club-level kid named Collins (?), as I believe the regular backup/rotating goalie Matt Carney was down with an injury of his own, so we all figured the clubbie would get the Sunday afternoon game (first game was a Friday night), but when word got back to Effingwoods that Ayers was gonna give it a go, we were all pretty shocked. And he earned a tie.
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Carney had a concussion (his third) and was "not available". He got run in the crease (against Providence) and wouldn't be cleared to play until after the Maine series. He was left on campus when the team went north. He and some friends hopped in a car and drove to Orono, just in case he was needed. The coaching staff rightfully said NO, you aren't cleared to play.

For the Sunday game Nathan Martz (forward) was going to be the back-up if Ayers couldn't play. He was the emergency 3rd goalie regardless. UNH started the year with rotating goalies with a club team "3rd" and nearly had a forward playing back-up goalie. At the time the rules were if you had 2 goalies hurt in game they would pause while someone put on the pads, if you didn't dress 2, you would play without a goalie.

It turned out the timing was lucky. Ayers gutted out the Sunday game with his wrist stitched back together, a custom cobbled together protective something under the glove and the Dr. saying he couldn't make it worse, just hurt like hell. Monday he had to have surgery. Carney cleared his concussion that same Monday and started the next weekend, against Providence.

From that point on if Ayers covered a puck with traffic around the blocker came up to protect himself.

Ayers was a really good college goalie that had one particularly bad game at a bad time. I know both BU and Cornell were very happy to see Ayers graduate.
 
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Chuck Murray said:
We were there for that one, we had seats down at the opposite end, didn't know what happened until they spent over 5 minutes trying to clean up the mess in front of the other goal. IIRC the back-up goalie was a club-level kid named Collins (?), as I believe the regular backup/rotating goalie Matt Carney was down with an injury of his own, so we all figured the clubbie would get the Sunday afternoon game (first game was a Friday night), but when word got back to Effingwoods that Ayers was gonna give it a go, we were all pretty shocked. And he earned a tie.
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Wasn't the third goalie Jeff Petriesiak who hustled up 95 for the next night's game?
 
The portal is all quiet still other than Babbage. What I find crazy is that the portal contains roughly 10% of all D1 hockey players. Question remains, from that list what do we get and is it of any value....
 
norbert said:
The portal is all quiet still other than Babbage. What I find crazy is that the portal contains roughly 10% of all D1 hockey players. Question remains, from that list what do we get and is it of any value....
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Sofar I have seen very little "wow factor" in the portal entrants this year. Guessing the influx of CHL talent has a bit to do with that where the portal is not the only way to get higher end talent with experience in their 18-20 year old seasons
 
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